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Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 28, 2012

Parker not expecting to win fifth straight scoring title

Shimane Susanoo Magic forward Michael Parker, the four-time reigning scoring champion, predicted on Monday he won't win the scoring title this season.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Sep 27, 2012

Bicqlo – Bic Camera meets Uniqlo – is here!

Uniqlo and Bic Camera cross-pollinate and make a baby.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2012

Why shouldn't pols treat voters like grownups?

In every year divisible by four, the dominant superstition of American politics — faith in the magic of presidential words and deeds — reaches an apogee that feeds national narcissism: Everything that happens anywhere is about us, is a response to something America did or did not do, and can be controlled...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2012

Google launches tablet, e-book service in Japan

Google Inc. launched its latest tablet device in Japan on Tuesday, with the price more than 50 percent cheaper than Apple Inc.'s popular iPad.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 26, 2012

Nuclear crisis lowers curtain on Japan's Confucian politics

Around 25 years ago it was fashionable to portray Japan's economic system as an alternative to Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Japan's success, it was said, was based on its unique business models, its state-guided capitalism — and on the Confucian values it had inherited from China.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2012

Toyota plans slew of new hybrid models

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that it will introduce 21 new gasoline-electric hybrid models by the end of 2015 to meet the growing demand for fuel-efficient cars.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 25, 2012

Backsliding Japan Post broadens its horizons on all fronts

Is Japan Post proceeding with privatization or backtracking to its old model?
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 25, 2012

Cesium contamination in food appears to be on wane

It's been 18 months since the Fukushima nuclear disaster contaminated much of the prefecture and beyond, and reports are still coming in about radiation in food exceeding the government limit.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2012

Secret of success for the top-rated universities

No country dominates any industry as much as the United States dominates higher education. According to Shanghai Jiao-Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, for example, 17 of the world's 20 best universities are American, with Harvard topping the list by a substantial margin.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2012

Brutality in Benghazi

The wave of violence that engulfed the Muslim world in the aftermath of the release of a video insulting Prophet Muhammad has receded. But there is far more to this sad episode than meets the eye.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 23, 2012

Scrutiny of Tohoku reconstruction funds needed

Last December there was a mild eruption of indignation when it was reported that some of the money earmarked for reconstruction of areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 would go to protect research whaling from interventionists like Sea Shepherd. Greenpeace and a few other organizations...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 23, 2012

Niigata doesn't appear ready for pro baseball franchise

Two years ago, I wrote a column about how I thought the city of Niigata appeared ready to support a Japanese baseball franchise team, should there ever be another expansion (as in the case of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2004) or if an existing Central or Pacific League club decided to move. Now,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 22, 2012

Filipino filmmaker-writer captures the stories of Asians on the fringe

Rey Ventura's prose startles with the subtle force of cinematic images: From the "rustling leaves" that signal the return of the rebel forces to the Aeta hill tribes in the Philippines to the "standing men" or day laborers populating the alleyways of the Kotobukicho district of Yokohama. As both filmmaker...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 21, 2012

Quest to save at-risk heritage homes mixes art and real estate

Every now and again news gets around of some architecturally important building that is about to be demolished. Invariably, there arises a chorus of calls for better public preservation measures and, invariably, those calls go unheeded.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2012

Companies reopen as anger eases in China

The widespread protests in China appeared to ease Thursday as Japanese companies were left with yet another stinging reminder that doing business in China comes with risks.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2012

Delayed recovery moves BOJ

Apparently motivated by the European Central Bank's decision to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds and the U.S. Federal Reserve's third round of quantitative easing, the Bank of Japan announced new steps for monetary easing on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2012

Exports slide again on EU, China gloom

Exports fell 5.8 percent in August from a year earlier, declining for a third straight month on weak demand in Europe and China, resulting in a trade deficit of ¥754.1 billion, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2012

Territorial row is a ticking time bomb for Asia

As the struggle to control disputed islands and valuable offshore resources has intensified in the East and South China Seas over the past few years, the United States has said repeatedly that it does not take sides in the disagreements among Asian countries over who has ownership rights.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2012

BOJ surprises markets with additional easing measures

The Bank of Japan unexpectedly expanded its asset-purchase fund by ¥10 trillion on Wednesday, seeking to counter an increasing danger of contraction.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2012

Japanese companies become protest targets in China

As anti-Japan protests in China rage with no end in sight, Japanese businesses there are seeing their operations disrupted, while government officials seek to limit the damage to economic ties.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / ZEIT GIST: UPDATE
Sep 18, 2012

U.S. judge dismisses rapist's bid to halt case over Yokosuka assault

Australian Catherine Fisher is one step closer to seeing justice done after a Milwaukee Circuit Court judge decided earlier this month to hear the case against former U.S. serviceman Bloke T. Deans, who raped her in Japan in 2002.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 16, 2012

Japan's depressing increase in psychoactive drug use

In July, the British pharmaceutical behemoth GlaxoSmithKline reached a $3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the company's illegal marketing of several drugs in the United States. One of these, the antidepressant Paxil, was pushed by GSK salespersons for treating children, even...
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2012

Worse off for reading the news

Regarding the Sept. 13 Kyodo article "Fukushima finds first child thyroid cancer after 3/11": What shameful journalism. Everyone with whom I've shared this article and who read only the headline assumed that a link had been proven between the nuclear reactor disasters at Fukushima and higher rates of...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 16, 2012

Sex samaritan keeps walking the walk

Self-styled "sex helper" Shingo Sakatsume has lost count of the abuses he claims the media and the authorities have heaped on him.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 15, 2012

Hillsborough report confirms truth

It is like blaming the passengers for an aircraft crash or the audience if a theater's ceiling collapsed.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Sep 15, 2012

Japan, Israel tied up after first day of Davis Cup World Group playoff

Japan and Israel are deadlocked 1-1 following the opening day of play in their Davis Cup World Group playoff at Ariake Colosseum on Friday.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years